Study co-authored by Goldberg suggests mindfulness shows similar effects to other frontline treatments

Goldberg, who received his Ph.D. from the School of Education’s Department of Counseling Psychology in August, is the lead author on the report. Goldberg is currently completing his postdoctoral fellowship in Health Services Research & Development at the Seattle VA and the University of Washington.

Goldberg

During the study, Goldberg examined the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions on the clinical symptoms of psychiatric disorders across 142 studies (representing over 12,000 participants). They compared mindfulness-based interventions with evidence-based treatments, as defined by the American Psychological Association's Society for Clinical Psychology. The research indicated that mindfulness interventions were equivalent to evidence-based treatments when the two groups of treatments were compared head-to-head for a range of psychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety.

Goldberg said that he hopes "these findings will be used by clinicians and consumers of healthcare who may be considering engaging in a mindfulness-based intervention. Rather than viewing mindfulness as an 'alternative' therapy, our study suggests mindfulness on average shows similar effects to other frontline treatments, things like cognitive-behavior therapy and antidepressant medications."

He added that future work will be needed to determine which mindfulness treatments are most effective for a given disorder.